Kimberly Hopkins and Connie Lint
Recorded
May 12, 2023
Archived
May 12, 2023
32:00 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddv002483
Description
Kimberly Hopkins (63) speaks with her sister, Connie Lint (69), about her time serving as mechanic in the Air Force and a member of the National Guard. Kimberly considers the discrimination she faced as a woman in the military and discusses her travels around the world.Subject Log / Time Code
Kimberly Hopkins (KH) speaks to her sister, Connie Lint (CL), about her experience as a woman Air Force mechanic and how she often felt like a “show pony."
KH explains that she got the nickname "little paw" because she could fit into small spaces the men in her squadron could not.
KH talks about her time in Norway while in the Air Force.
KH reflects on her time in the National Guard and getting the opportunity to be on duty with her then husband in Germany.
KH explains her decision to leave the Air Force and join the National Guard so that she could marry her then husband.
KH recounts her worst memory from her time in the Air Force, unsuccessfully trying to prevent a plane which eventually crashed, killing the people in it, from flying due to mechanical concerns.
KH speaks on the lack of camaraderie she sees in the Air Force today and how that disconnect translates to life outside the Air Force as well.
KH remembers her dad, who was a veteran himself, and how he raised her to have a “mechanical mind."
KH provides some final reflections on being a woman veteran.
Participants
- Kimberly Hopkins
- Connie Lint